Avva‘s reference to a joke about MGIMO (the prestigious Moscow State Institute of International Relations) led me to the Wikipedia article on “Runglish,” which has not only the joke:
“Excuse me, which watch?”
“Near six.”
“Such much?”
“To whom how…”
“MGIMO finished?”
“Ask!…”
…but a detailed explanation following it of each line (for the last: “Спрашиваешь! ‘But of course!’ This one-word finisher literally means “[You] ask!” i.e., “You don’t even have to ask”. Also, he could say “Он еще спрашивает!”, i.e. “He still asks!”). The “Such much” part will be familiar to aficionados of Casablanca.
You will do beeautifully in America…
I find the joke really funny. However, I have issues with the entire article on Runglish, and moreover, the entire concept of qualifying poorly spoken English as a dialect of any sort. Yes, there are commonalities in how Russians mispronounce or misuse English. Native English speakers make similar (if not worse) mistakes when speaking Russian, yet I don’t see a term qualifying them as using a “pidgin” form of Russian.
I went to the local Russian store yesterday, where when buying something by weight, you ask for “пол-poundа” or “2 poundа”, though the lovely Russian word “фунт” would suffice just as well. Was it Runglish? I don’t know…
ANI,
Yes, there are commonalities in how Russians mispronounce or misuse English … yet I don’t see a term qualifying them as using a “pidgin” form of Russian
When Russian refers to more or less systematic errors made by individual Russian speakers of English when speaking English to whoever, I agree with you, that’s not a pidgin.
But when we’re talking about Runglish as a language where those “errors” have become standard for the community that uses them, then Runglish definitely is a pidgin. The Wiki article names two such communities: the crew of the ISS and the Russian community in Brighton Beach.
Was it Runglish? I don’t know
Depends on what the rest of the conversation looked like. If it was Russian all the way, then no, you spoke Russian and that “pound” was a borrowing. If there were more English words and even phrases in there, that’s a little more difficult question.
You will do beeautifully in America…
“You will get along beautiful in America.” (After Sakall pauses and adjusts his coat awkwardly.)
IMDB has a more or less accurate transcription, except that Herr Leuchtag starts out not with “Come sit down,” but “Carl, sit down,” consistent with the script, which does have “beautifully.”
Of course, the IMDB version gets copied all over the net to tens of thousands of places, with any chain of attribution whatsoever.